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Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) Diet for High Cholesterol

Overview

The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet can lower cholesterol. This diet is recommended
by the National Cholesterol Education Program of the U.S. National Institutes
of Health.1

People have
varying degrees of success in lowering their cholesterol by changing their diets. Those who are most successful using diet changes
to lower their cholesterol are those who lose excess weight. Diet changes are
usually the first step in lowering cholesterol before medicines are
added.

The diet's main focus is to reduce the amount of saturated fat you
eat, because saturated fat elevates your cholesterol. You can reduce the
saturated fat in your diet by limiting the amount of meat and whole milk products you
eat. Choose low-fat products from those food groups instead. Replace most of
the animal fat in your diet with unsaturated fat, especially monounsaturated
oils, such as olive, canola, or peanut oil. If monounsaturated fat is substituted for
saturated fat, it lowers
LDL ("bad") cholesterol and keeps
HDL ("good") cholesterol up.

Your doctor or dietitian might recommend that you add soluble fiber or a cholesterol-lowering margarine to your diet. These might help you lower LDL cholesterol. Soluble fiber is found in foods like oats, beans, and fruit. Cholesterol-lowering margarines contain plant stanols and sterols.

Grundy SM, et al. (2001). Executive summary of the
third report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Expert Panel
on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults
(Adult Treatment Panel III). JAMA, 285(19):
2486–2497.

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